Issue 113  26th October 2019

Knife crime has risen to a new record high with some forces seeing increases of up to 50 per cent in just a year - as the proportion of offences solved has fallen to a low of just 7.4 per cent.

Police recorded offences involving a knife or sharp instrument increased by seven per cent to 44,076, its highest since figures started being compiled in 2011, according to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Bedfordshire suffered the biggest rise with knife crime rising by 57 per cent to 688 offences, followed by Suffolk (46 per cent to 230), Dyfed-Powys (45 per cent to 253), City of London 43 per cent to 57), North Yorkshire (41 per cent to 315) and Greater Manchester (35 per cent to 3,437).

The number of stop and searches carried out by police in England and Wales has jumped by almost a third in the past year, new figures have revealed.

Officers carried out 370,454 stop and searches under Section 1 of the Police And Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) in the year leading up to March 2019, according to a new Home Office report – a spike of 32% on the previous year. The figures represent the first rise in eight years, with the number of stop and searches on a downward trend between 2010/11 and 2017/18.

The Serious Fraud Office will focus on the “bigger picture” when conducting investigations after the collapse of several prominent cases. Sara Lawson, QC, general counsel responsible for all cases at the agency, said yesterday that the investigator was changing its approach to conducting investigations.

The SFO is responsible for tackling high-level and complex fraud, bribery and corruption. Convictions fell to a three-year low last year. In the ten cases that concluded in the year to March, only 17 of the 32 defendants it prosecuted were convicted, giving a conviction rate of 53 per cent. The figures from the agency’s annual report showed that convictions had dropped from the 77 per cent rate in 2017-18 and were at their lowest level since 2015-16.

The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has commissioned a review into immunity arrangements for US personnel and their families at an RAF base following the death of Harry Dunn.

Making a statement to the Commons on the case on Monday, Raab said of the Dunn family: “We will continue to fight for justice for them. I’ve already commissioned a review of the immunity arrangements for US personnel and their families at the Croughton annex holding privileges and immunities under the Vienna convention on diplomatic relations. As this case has demonstrated, I do not believe the current arrangements are right and the review will look at how we can make sure that the arrangements at Croughton cannot be used in this way again.”

A Commission on Justice in Wales' report sets out a plan for justices in Wales which includes 78 recommendations. These include: a new justice department of the Welsh Government; a Welsh High Court and Court of Appeal; a criminal legal aid system based on "Nordic" public defender principles; raising the age of criminal responsibility to 12; establishing family drug and alcohol courts; consider the establishment of an ombudsman scheme to resolve civil disputes; and equality of the Welsh language.